The mission of the Burlington High School Guidance Department is to support the academic, career, and personal/social development of all students. Through individual and group counseling, collaboration with school, home, and community, and assessment of student needs, we foster responsible decision-making. We strive to help students realize their full academic and personal potential as lifelong learners, engaged community members, and global citizens.
Updated August 2017

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Focus on Freshmen

As in years past the BHS Guidance staff puts a tremendous amount
of focus on incoming freshmen. An incoming 9th grader faces many new
challenges with the transition to high school. Freshmen are dealing with a new
environment, new teachers, more freedom and responsibility, etc. The Guidance
staff makes every effort to be in tune with this process and to serve as a
resource.

Each year Guidance Counselors meet with freshmen in small
groups within the first month of school. We call students to the Guidance
Office and introduce ourselves, and discuss the many resources
available to them. Although we have found this process useful, we also feel it
is not enough. In fact, what we have learned from our freshman over the past
several years is that they prefer to hear about graduation requirements,
academic expectations, how to go about making a level change, etc.

For a second year the BHS Guidance
staff worked with Ms. Sullivan in the health department. Ms. Sullivan allowed
the BHS Guidance staff to teach a lesson during her Freshmen health class. The
Guidance staff covered and discussed BHS graduation requirements and the importance
of identifying resources. One teaching practice that we used again this year
was a “ticket to leave”. The ticket to leave is simply a form that we ask freshmen
to complete at the end of the lesson so we can gauge if students understood
what was covered. Based on the data, we felt our message was clear to a vast
majority of freshmen. We look forward to
continuing and refining this practice in years to come.